![]() Now that I am a writer, I regret the decision every day.) Typing programs, more than most other self-help or educational programs, are especially well suited to the strengths of personal computers. (Yes, I eventually left the high school typing class because I was sure I would be a physicist and would never wind up in a job that involved typing. Mavis, in contrast, is such a delight to work with that even I, an incorrigible two-finger, hunt-and-peck holdout, may learn at last to touch-type. My high school teacher was a sour-faced person with no sense of humor and no tolerance for fumbling fingers. I don't know how they teach typing elsewhere in the world, but I do know that Mavis is light years ahead of my high school typing commandant. Mavis (a fictional character) calls herself ''the finest typing tutor in the world.'' That sounds immodest, but to quote the sage Dizzy Dean, ''It ain't braggin' if you kin do it.'' Software Toolworks is also responsible for Chessmaster 2000, which regularly whips all comers, including mainframe programs, in competition of the United States Chess Federation Computer Chess Championships. Of the many good typing programs available, Mavis is the best we've seen. The program, which showed up on Earth circa November 1987, is available from the Software Toolworks (One Toolworks Plaza, 13557 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, Calif., 91423 telephone 81). PC's and compatibles Apple (II, IIgs, Mac), Commodore (Amiga, 64/ 128) and Atari (ST. ![]() ![]() ![]() Where did he learn to type? Probably from a dusty, ancient copy of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing ($39.95 for 5 1/4-inch disks and $44.95 for 3 1/2-inch disks), for I.B.M. When he finds out to his horror that he must use - gasp - a keyboard, he then proceeds to peck out a complex chemical formula for transparent aluminum, his fingers moving at something close to Warp 9, or about 900 words a minute. To do so they need a computer, and they find one in a Bay Area factory.Ĭommander Scott, the spaceship's chief engineer, is accustomed to computers that respond to voice commands. ![]() IN the film ''Star Trek IV,'' the crew of a 23d century spaceship goes back in time, to Earth of the late 20th century, to save the whales. ![]()
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